As the very, very long final battle continues, we get another shift in who really is the ultimate bad guy between Shigaraki and All for One, who’s not yet dead. It turns out that All for One has taken over as the ultimate villain in yet another big twist and that he’s behind everything bad that’s happened with Shigaraki. So without further ado, let’s recap the episode.

The episode begins with Midoriya seeing the flashback of Shigaraki’s terrible childhood. Nana comes to restrain Shigaraki’s father and apologize for abandoning him. Since this is a flashback memory, this doesn’t seem like anything done will tangibly affect the real world. Midoriya sees Shigaraki holding his dog, who then decays. Midoriya figures out that this is when Shigaraki manifests his quirk. Little Shigaraki is about to grab his sister in a panic, but little Midoriya comes to stop him.

It appears that what happens in the memory world can affect the real world as little Shigaraki’s decay quirk causes Midoriya to lose both of his arms. All of a sudden, Midoriya and Shigaraki experience memories that don’t belong to either one of them. We see All for One meeting with other villains at a conference table. All for One chides Shigaraki for being so physically and mentally weak and takes over his body. While doing this, he provides a major reveal about the truth of Shigaraki’s traumatic past. It turns out that All for One engineered the situation to where Shigaraki’s dad turned into an abusive monster and All for One was the one responsible for giving Shigaraki a flawed  version of a quirk. The original version of the quirk could both create and destroy, but Shigaraki’s could only destroy. In effect, All for One created Shigaraki. So now we know that a part of All for One survived the battle with Bakugo.

It looks absolutely hopeless as Midoriya is bleeding on the ground with no arms when all of a sudden, his classmates jump out a portal and pummel All for One possessed Shigaraki. Aizawa emerges from the portal and the title of the episode appears to refer to Aizawa sending in the cavalry.

We get a flashback to ten minutes  before this scene. Aizawa and the other heroes decide to use Kurogiri’s  portal powers to send Midoriya some much needed help in the battle. Eri offers to give her horn to  aid Midoriya in battle. It is revealed that Aoyama is also in critical condition from his battle. We cut to the present and Aizawa gives Midoriya Eri’s horn. The horn’s healing powers heal Midoriya’s arms, like we really believed he would be permanently maimed, and he is now ready to finish this final battle with All for One/Shigaraki that’s been raging since season 7 started. More of Midoriya’s classmates show up and of all characters, it is Mineta who gives the big tough guy speech. The next episode preview reveals that Shigaraki and Midoriya will continue this very long battle next week.

Well, it’s been a classic battle shonen and superhero cliche to have the villain secretly mastermind everything bad that has happened to someone, and we get that with All for One being the mastermind behind Shigaraki’s sorrows. This cliche does work as it does make it even easier to boo All for One and how he tried to court Shigaraki into villainy. Fans might be divided by this episode depending on if they think Shigaraki or All for One is the more effective final villain. From the looks of things, All for One is the final villain, for better and for worse. The highlight of this episode was seeing Midoriya’s classmates cameo and give him some support. Although fans might be split about All for One hijacking the role of final villain, this was a well done episode.

The post My Hero Academia: “From Aizawa”: Episode 166 Recap appeared first on Anime Superhero News.